~Star Mouse
&& && &&
With his schedule suitably adjusted, Spike went out patrolling. He managed to
dust about eight vamps in the time he had before he had to get back to the library, to
be picked up by his dad.
Elizabeth the Black was not among them.
He got back to the library just after his dad did. Spike had checked the clock, and he wasn't late. Apparently Rupert had arrived a bit early to have a chat with Ms. Calendar. Luckily, Spike had gotten back in time that the "been in the bathroom" lie hadn't expired.
Spike really wanted to get his da out of the fluorescent lights before he realized how dusty his son was. So he grabbed his books and his father and pulled both out the door.
When he got home, he mumbled a goodnight and dashed upstairs for a shower.
&& && &&
About half an hour after he settled into bed, there was a knock by his window. He ignored it, hoping it would go away, like most other night noises.
It came again. Louder.
"What the--" He raised his head off the pillow and squinted out in the night.
One of the most terrifying things you can possibly see is a silhouette in your window, late at night. Especially the second floor.
Spike stared at the dark shape for several very loud heartbeats, before he remembered he was a Vampire Slayer.
He gripped the stake under his pillow --don't ask-- and stood slowly. He walked to the window.
The shape waved.
Figuring he didn't really have a choice, with typical Slayer reason, he opened the window.
"Hello."
"Oh, bloody he-"
"Tut tut," Buffy shook her finger at him, and adjusted her grip on the lattice.
Confusion overcame the killer instinct for the moment, but he backed away from the window, just in case.
"How did you find my house?"
Buffy chuckled and waved something in the air. He squinted.
"My wallet!" He made a grab for it, but she laughed and held it away.
"It's a very interesting read, Spike." She smirked. "Someone actually christened
you that?" She flipped it open. "Ah yes. 'Spike W. Giles.' No driver's license, I notice,
but the student ID works, too. Address and everything."
"Give me the bloody wallet."
"Nuhuh. I wanna play."
Spike narrowed his eyes. "Are you pouting?"
The vampire at his window put her lip back in its proper place. "No."
"Give me the wallet!"
"No. I found it. I get to keep it."
"You bloody well don't!"
"Spike? What--?"
Giles stood in the doorway. Squinting into the dark. "Who's that?"
"I-- uh..." Spike cast Buffy a panicked glance. She grinned beatifically.
"Do I finally get to meet your dad? Is that why you invited me over tonight?"
Even as Spike's eyes widened in panicked shock, Giles narrowed his. Much different than squinting. "Young man, I'll have you know you're grounded. There is no excuse for this kind of behavior." He looked at Buffy. "What are you doing hanging out the window?"
"Trying not to fall. Spike said it's the best way to sneak out late."
Giles sputtered for a second. "What the devil! Get in here."
And with that, Buffy gained entry to the home of the Slayer.
Triumphantly, she climbed inside and stood within the threshold in all her leather coated~glory. She threw the startled Spike a smirk. Rupert missed it in his ranting.
"Well, this is the end of this, I can tell you that right now! I don't care how long it's been going on--
"--six wonderful weeks--" Buffy put in.
"--but it's going to stop right now. Spike is grounded until further notice, and I'm sure your parents are wondering where you are. I suggest you get home to them, right now." Rupert glared at the two of them. Spike just stood, slightly bewildered at how fast everything had happened.
Buffy shrugged, and turned to blow him a kiss. When she was facing away from
Rupert, she vamped for a second.
"Bye, Sweetie. Catch you later." She turned back, smiled at Rupert, and walked
past him on her way to the door.
Damn her-- "Elizabeth!" She looked back.
Spike took off his crucifix and tossed it at her. She caught it without thinking, and there was a tiny sizzle.
They stood there for a second, while her hand clenched convulsively.
Rupert sniffed the air. "Is something burning?" He turned to Spike. "I'll speak to you in the morning. You're in some serious trouble, young man." He headed down to figure out what was combusting in the kitchen.
As soon as he was gone, Buffy dropped the cross to cradle her sizzling hand. She vamped out.
"Bastard."
"Payback. Give me my wallet, bitch."
She snarled, but threw the wallet onto his bed. "Oh well. It was totally worth it. You can't get rid of me now, Slayer. I'm in."
His brow creased as she morphed human again, sent him another confusingly innocent smile, and left.
Spike watched the closed door for a minute.
He turned his gaze to the floor and blinked.
"What the hell?"
&& && &&
"And your dad just invited her in?"
"Well, she was hanging out the soddin' window. And since we've all worked so hard keeping him in the dark about vampires, you can't really blame him too much."
Angel nodded slowly. "So, do you think she's gonna kill you in your sleep?"
Spike considered, as he chewed Sunnydale High's version of a beefstick. "I ... I don't think so. She seems more like the 'fight to the death' kind than the emotionless 'eliminate the threat before they know what's happening' kind."
Faith poked at her mashed potatoes. She kept finding little pockets of the instant powder buried in there. It was like a treasure hunt. Or a mining operation.
Angel brood~faced for a second, then looked back up at Spike.
"Wanna camp out at my place?"
"Oh, yeah. Oh, wait. I'm grounded, remember?"
Faith raised an eyebrow. "You're gonna stay in a house a vampire's got free
access to just because your dad says so?"
Spike blinked. "Duh. Have you met my da?"
Faith shrugged. "Yeah. He's tweed~guy."
Angel gave her a bland look. "You obviously haven't met his father."
&& && &&
The table in the library was covered in books. Angel and Faith were both flipping through particularly old and dusty ones, while Spike punched at a padded Jenny Calendar.
"Well I don't see anything more on Elizabeth the Black herself, but there is something in here about a couple of her childer..." Angel said slowly, then flipped back a few pages.
Jenny nodded. "And?"
"The second Slayer she fought, she turned. Some girl, Cordelia Chase. That was about 1932... And then her Watcher kicked the bucket too. Alexander Levelle Harris."
Jenny nodded. "I've heard of him. He was one of the youngest Watchers the council ever appointed."
Faith raised an eyebrow. "And look what a good job he did," she said.
Spike just kept kicking the pads.
"After she turned them, she took them with her all over Europe. It's been the three of them ever since. So that probably means they're here now, right?" He looked to Jenny for confirmation.
"A master and her two prized childer... Safe to say that's a major threat. Spike, I want you to be on the look~out, patrolling tonight. Buffy has probably brought them here for a reason. We can't stop them until we know what it is."
"And thank you for that repeat performance by Exposition~Woman," Angel muttered, barely loud enough to hear.
"What are you people talking about?"
All heads turned at the slightly bewildered, but somehow still quite bitchy voice.
"I-- Oh. Um," Jenny struggled to cover. "Dramatic reading assignment. Such a strange subject. Who wrote that anyway?"
Spike rolled his eyes. She used that one every time they got caught out. He really doubted Willow cared, anyway.
But the redhead leather~skirted her way deeper into the library, brows still knit. "Uh huh. Right. I'm in drama. We're doing 'Our Town.'" She raised an eyebrow at Spike, Faith, and Angel. "Shouldn't you guys be in class right now?"
"Shouldn't you?" Faith countered.
Willow held up a laminated hall pass. "Some idiot barfed on my math book. Thank God I was out of my seat. I'm here for a new one."
She turned to Ms. Calendar. "Why are you dressed up like the Pillsbury Dough Boy?" Her sweeping glaze slowly took in the rest of the scene. "And are those swords? Of course they're swords. Why do you have swords?"
Before anyone could protest, she had a Germanic broadsword in her well~moisturized hands.
"Ah-- Art exhibit." Jenny seemed poised on the brink of panic as the social butterfly swung the weapon around in huge, potentially destructive arcs.
Spike shot his Watcher a look.
Willow sent her a surprisingly similar, intelligent look. "Uh huh." She set it down. "Well, I guess that settles that, then. Perfectly logical explanation. Silly me, jumping to conclusions and thinking you guys were gonna try to go on a demon~hunt." She raised an eyebrow at Jenny.
"My book? Junior Stat. Honours."
Once again reminded that she was, indeed the librarian, Jenny disappeared into
the textbook closet off her office.
Willow looked around at the three students. "So you're not demon~hunters, then?"
"Uh, demons? What demons?"
Willow rolled her eyes. "I'm not stupid! The demons that have been setting up camp in this town since the hellmouth opened, duh."
Angel narrowed his eyes. "Hey, that's a secret."
"It would be more of a secret if less people were drained of blood on a weekly basis, ya think?" She ran a hand through her hair. "I'll take it by your clever retort that I was right. You really shouldn't try to stop them, though. It's dangerous."
Spike raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"
She nodded. "Yes. You have no idea what you're getting yourselves into. I've been keeping an eye on the sitch for the last few months. It's way incredible. And that's not a good thing, either."
"'keeping an eye on...?'" Faith asked.
"With magic. How dense are you people?"
&& && &&
Buffy blinked the sleep out of her eyes. She was up early. She could smell the
sunlight through the walls. Now why...
Oh, yeah. The second stage of "The Plan."
The blood of the Slayer.
This would be very fun.
She pulled herself up off the sarcophagus. It was liberally sprinkled with pillows.
Number four. She had to get ready. Shower, change, make~up. Had to look her best
for such a big night. And if he happened to stake her, well.
She'd rather be sent into oblivion looking really hot.
&& && &&
"So you're some mystical warrior chosen to fight the ghoulies?"
"yeah."
Willow nodded. "That explains a lot."
"Such as?"
"The dent you put in your locker when you couldn't get it open? The way you and a wooden ruler 'miraculously' escaped after being trapped in the faculty lounge with the 'gang on PCP,' that mysteriously dissappeared?"
Angel shook his head. "I don't get it, Willow. I thought the whole point was that you didn't know we existed."
"That is not the point. That right there what keeps you from being popular. To
give the impression of not caring what people are doing, you have to know exactly what they're doing." She realized she'd been just a bit too candid with the lunatic
fringe. "It helps you avoid the losers," she added quickly, but her heart wasn't in it.
Jenny Calendar glanced at the clock. "Shouldn't you be going back to class,
Willow?"
"Oh, you'll just write me a pass after. It's no big deal."
The Watcher sighed. "But surely you're missing something important in class.."
she prompted.
"No, not really. Math's over. I can just find the assignment off the internet and figure it out at home. I've got study hall last, so I'm free for the rest of the day!"
"Oh goodie," Faith mumbled.
Angel patted her head.
Spike had his head in his arms, against the table top. "Is it dark yet?"
Jenny Calendar looked at the clock again, automatically, before she realized how
stupid the question was.
"It's 2:30."
Spike groaned. "I think I'll go to class, then, if no one else will."
Angel looked up as Spike stood. "You're doing what?"
"Class. Learning. Sounds interesting, thought I'd try it."
Jenny nodded. "Have fun. Write yourself a hall pass. I'll see you tonight."
As Spike wandered off to partake in an actual education, Willow started leafing through the books on the table.
"Who's this?"
Jenny looked down. She had the page open to a black and white photo of Elizabeth.
"That's a vampire. Elizabeth the Black. She's about 120 years old, and she's killed three Slayers. We're trying to figure out why she's in Sunnydale, before she can kill anyone else."
"Probably too late," Faith put in.
Willow stared at the photo for a few seconds. She broke off the eye contact and turned the page.
"Huh. I like her hair."
&& && &&
Hope you had fun. I honestly have no idea what to do next. What should Buffy's great and amazing "Plan" be? I seriously am drawing a blank here. (And you thought I knew what I was doing...)
Help...
~Star Mouse
